Ledger Drawings at the Fairfield University Art Museum

An article in the New Haven Register describes the Ledger Drawings currently on show at the Fairfield University Art Museum as ‘time capsules from the Plains Indians.’ Featuring fifty works by various warrior artists, the exhibition was organised in collaboration with Donald Ellis Gallery. 

The drawings on show are delicate records of their time, the author notes. Created by members of the Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho Nations, the captured scenes elucidate ‘both everyday life and such compelling subject matter as bloody battles, steam locomotive trains, great masted sailboats, horses and horsemen.’ A noticeable shift occurred with the forced relocation of Native American peoples to designated reservations imposed by the American government. Drawings dating to this later period frequently address captivity, but also delineate the social and ceremonial life of the community. 'What all reflect is watchful observation and almost an ambition to create a record of their time — like time capsules that would forever carry a footprint of their being.’

Ledger Drawings of the Plains Indians is on show at the Fairfield University Art Museum in the Bellarmine Hall Galleries until December 20, 2018.